Social Security Solvency–Shining a Positive Light on the Crisis - napa-net.org; CPBB
Although acknowledging that Social Security faces long-term financial problems, including the potential for a substantial benefit cut about a decade from now, officials at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities take the high road in an article posted on napa-net.org. In a post on the National Association of Plan Advisors website, Kathleen Romig, Director of Social Security and Disability Policy at CBPP, and CBPP Research Associate Luis Nunez, are reported as having assessed the situation as being one in which “the challenges the system faces do not spell doom for it nor those whom it benefits.” Read the full post here.
The remarks by Ms. Romig and Ms. Nunez are quoted from a CBPP blog entry titled “Social Security Is Not Bankrupt” in which the projected insolvency situation is viewed as a “glass half full” scenario, since bankruptcy allegations are actually misleading and are serving to misrepresent the fact that Social Security will continue to pay benefits even if full trust fund depletion were to occur. Their assessment points to the liklihood of legislative action to address the problem, and stresses that there is “time for government officials to ‘carefully’ design a way to minimize a reduction in benefits.
While it is somewhat soothing to see a positive spin on Social Security’s dire circumstances, the fact remains that the clock is ticking–louder each month–as Congress continues to defer action on a problem that has been known for decades. The CBPP assessment is factual, in the sense that depletion of the trust fund reserves would not eliminate Social Security entirely, but there’s still the fear that inaction would create a financial catastrophe for the millions of seniors dependent on this income. This fear makes it critical that Congress focus attention on the myriad emerging proposals designed to “fix” the problem, and begin to seek input from sources that have dedicated serious time to studying the situation.
One such source is the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), an organization that has worked steadily through the years to develop a proposal to ensure based on the belief that Social Security must be preserved and modernized. This can be achieved without tax increases by changing cost of living adjustments, increasing the retirement age, and making modest adjustments to the highest income beneficiaries. The AMAC plan also suggests eliminating taxation of benefits, or at least annually adjusting the amount taxed for inflation, and eliminating the reduction of benefits for those who remain in the workforce before full retirement age. To review the AMAC proposal–titled the Social Security Guarantee—click here…